The Expedition Seven crew—along with European Space Agency Astronaut Pedro Duque—landed back on Earth on 27 October 2003 at Kazakhstan at 02:41:20 UTC, after undocking from the International Space Station in their Soyuz spacecraft at 23:17 UTC.

[7] From Houston, ISS Spacecraft Communicator Mike Fossum informed Expedition 7 Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Science Officer Edward Lu on 15 October 2003 of the successful launch of the Long March rocket carrying the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei.

The world's spacefaring nations have been joined by a new member tonight: China."

"[8] Malenchenko and Lu were previously crewmates on the STS-106 shuttle mission and did a spacewalk together during that flight.

[9] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.